Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians Land Transfer Act of 2025

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to present this bill at the request of the Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians to transfer 80 acres of BLM land and 185 acres of fee simple land that is already owned by the Tribe into trust as part of their reservation for the purposes of housing.

Mr. Speaker, I have always insisted that any transfer of lands from fee simple ownership to Federal trust must have the approval of the local land use management agency that is responsible for this land, since it takes that land off of the tax rolls and out of the agency's jurisdiction. I am pleased to report that the El Dorado County Board of Supervisors has unanimously endorsed this bill effecting the transfer.

This particular tract was approved for residential housing in the past, but the projects never materialized. This land transfer will bring a new neighborhood into the community, providing desperately needed housing to Tribal members. The Tribe already owns this land. It merely seeks the freedom afforded by Federal trust status to bring it to fruition.

The transfer of the 80 acres of Federal BLM land should also be a no- brainer. The BLM long ago abandoned this tract to neglect, and it is now densely overgrown and a serious fire hazard for the surrounding communities.

Putting this land under the active management of the Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians assures that good stewardship can be restored to this acreage in perpetuity.

The local government did request some restrictions on the use of the land, which the Tribal government has agreed to. The property cannot be used for gaming, nor for commerce beyond what is necessary to support the needs of the new neighborhood.

Frankly, I hope that future boards will agree to expand the permissible use of this land. In the meantime, both the Tribal government and the local government have agreed to these restrictions, and they are incorporated into this act.

Mr. Speaker, I will take just a moment to tell you about the Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians because it is a remarkable tale of resilience, determination, and triumph.

The members of this Tribe are the descendants of the Miwok and Southern Maidu people who populated the Sierra Nevada mountains and the Central Valley of California for many thousands of years. Spanish colonization devastated the Native population in the 18th century, and the 19th century gold rush all but obliterated it. By 1913, the entire Native population of California had plummeted from an estimated 310,000 down to just 17,000.

In the aftermath, the few surviving members of the Miwok Tribe were allocated 160 acres as a rancheria, but the construction of Highway 50 cut the residents off from easy access and the members dispersed into the surrounding communities.

The Indian Reorganization Act breathed new life into the isolated, disbanded descendants, and the members returned and reorganized as the Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians, the only federally recognized Tribe in El Dorado County. They have achieved remarkable success in the years that have followed.

This small Tribe, numbering an estimated 500 enrolled members, raised the private money to build an off ramp from Highway 50 to restore access to their rancheria. They used the opportunities afforded under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act to construct the Red Hawk Casino. From that success, they have expanded into a hospitality and recreation center for the region, providing employment, commerce, healthcare, and all of the spinoff commercial activity that that means to the surrounding community.

The Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians survived near annihilation during the Spanish colonization and gold rush eras only to become a prosperous and integral part of El Dorado County. I am honored to carry this legislation that will continue their progress and contributions to their posterity and to our community into the years ahead.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 2302) to take certain Federal land in the State of California into trust for the benefit of the Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians, and for other purposes, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and to include extraneous material on H.R. 2302, the bill now under consideration.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, H.R. 2302, the Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians Land Transfer Act of 2025, introduced by Congressman McClintock, would place approximately 80 acres of BLM land and 185 acres of fee land into trust for the Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians.

Descendants of the Miwok Indians once lived throughout north central

California, inhabiting land from the Sacramento area to the Sierra Nevada mountains.

The Shingle Springs Band, however, was displaced by the Gold Rush of the 1850s, prompting the Federal Government to refer to the Tribe as the ``Sacramento-Verona Band of Homeless Indians.'' In 1920, the government provided the Tribe a 160-acre parcel of land known as the Verona Tract, which serves as the Tribe's rancheria.

As the years have passed, and without the realignment of Highway 50 in California, the rancheria has become largely landlocked. This has prohibited the Tribe's growth and restricted its housing opportunities.

In 2014, roughly 41 acres of BLM land were placed into trust for the Tribe to assist with Tribal housing needs. Developing the land for housing has proved difficult, however, due to the land's rough terrain.

Recently, the Tribe purchased land near the rancheria known as the Indian Creek Subdivision, which was previously approved for a now- defunct subdivision. The Tribe seeks to place this land into trust and is pursuing this goal legislatively, as their previous attempts to obtain fee-to-trust approval through the Federal administrative process have been mired in bureaucracy.

The other parcels involved in this legislation comprise approximately 80 acres of BLM land that will be transferred into trust for the Tribe. These parcels have suffered from various management issues, which have led the Tribe and other surrounding landowners to raise concerns about increased wildfire risk. Despite lacking ownership, the Tribe has performed needed management functions on this land, a fact that reflects positively on the Tribe's stewardship capabilities and deep- felt concern for the land's overall health.

Currently, the Tribe has no immediate commercial or development plans for these parcels. Pursuant to the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, gaming on these lands is prohibited.

I applaud Mr. McClintock for working with the Tribe to develop H.R. 2302, which would place land into trust for the Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. McClintock), the lead sponsor of this bill.

Mr. Speaker, I commend the gentleman for his work on this important issue and representing his district so well.

Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time. I am prepared to close, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, this legislation will allow the Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians to place land into trust in a way that will benefit both the Tribe and the surrounding area.

Mr. Speaker, I urge the adoption of the bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

As you heard from Chairman Westerman, H.R. 2302 will help provide the Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians the ability to address their housing and infrastructure needs for their citizens.

Like Americans across the country who are struggling to afford housing in the Trump administration's economy, the Tribe is currently facing a housing shortage, with over 180 families listed on the Tribe's housing wait list. Without additional land, the Tribe is unable to build the housing needed to provide these families with homes.

The Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians Land Transfer Act will address this challenge by transferring 80 acres currently managed by the Bureau of Land Management and 185 acres of tribally owned fee land into trust for the benefit of the Tribe.

This bill is an important step toward ensuring that the Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians has the lands they need, their lands, to meet the current needs of their citizens and to plan for sustainable community growth.

Mr. Speaker, I urge support for this legislation, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this legislation, and I yield back the balance of my time.